-

"We learn from Mofheim, that the great work afcribed to the monaftic orders, the fupport of Papalauthority, was more especially performed by two mendicant claffes of Monks.The power of the Dominicans and Franciscans furpaffed greatly that of the other two orders, and rendered them fingularly confpicuous in the eyes of the world. During three centuries thefe two fraternities governed, with an almost universal and abfolute fway, both state and church, filled the most eminent posts ecclefiaftical and civil, taught in the universities and churches with an authority, before which all oppofition was filent, and maintained the pretended Majefty of the Roman Pontiffs, against Kings, Princes, Bishops, and Heretics, with incredible ardour, and equal fuccefs *.' And fince the Reformation, the Papal pretenfions to univerfal fupremacy have been fupported with equal zeal, and even carried into another hemifphere, by that order who have affumed the very name of Jefus "."

The spirit of perfecution is acknowledged to be one of the leading marks of Antichrist. Daniel fays, that "the king," who was divers

from all others, fhall wear out the faints of the moft High. In like manner, the beast in the Revelation of St. John deftroys the faints of the moft High-It was given to him to make war with the faints, and to overcome them-The woman that reprefents Papal Rome is drunk with the blood of the faints. How applicable are these descriptions to the conduct of the Papists in various ages! It has been computed that fifty millions of Proteftants have at different times been the victims of their perfecutions, and been cruelly put to death on account of their religious opinions. But for particular instances of the completion of these Prophecies, we look no farther into the bloody annals of the Church of Rome, than to the cruelties exercised against the Albigenfes and Waldenfes -the tortures and deaths of the martyrs in our own country, in the reign of Philip and Mary the barbarities exercifed upon the innocent natives of South America the acts of faith performed in Spain and Portugal the dark and fan

• Daniel vii. 25. Rev. xiii. 7. xvii. 6.

Simpson, p. 346.

• Gibbon, c. liv. p. 535. Lowman, p. 108.

f The law for burning heretics in England was first passed in the reign of Henry IV. It was not repealed till the year 1677. 'Simpson, p. 345.

VOL. II.

D

guinary

the

guinary proceedings of the Inquifition revocation of the Edict of Nantz, and the maffacre of St. Bartholomew. Thefe facts

alone are fufficient to fhew, that in this vindictive and perfecuting Church was found the blood of prophets and faints, and of all that were flain upon the earth h.

"The countries that have been moft cruelly haraffed, and deluged with Proteftant blood, are Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Italy, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Flanders, Holland, Savoy, Piedmont, and France. France, indeed, has exceeded all the nations in Europe for acts of perfecu tion, blood, and cruelty. Perfecution for confcience fake began there early and continued long. Even fo late as the beginning of the prefent century, the Proteftants endured

The Inquifition was established A. D. 1209. Dominick was made firft Inquifitor by Pope Innocent III. This holy office, in the ftyle of the Roman court, has improved the methods of perfecution, far beyond what was known in the days of antient Babylon and Rome, and has long been the most dreadful and barbarous tribunal the world ever faw, for all ensnaring arts of injuftice in profecution, all inhuman severity and cruelty in punishment: as is evidently proved at large in Limborch's Hiftory of the Inquifition. Lowman, p. 201, 202,

2

Rey. xviii. 24.

there

there as much as any people ever did fince the beginning of the world. Savoy, Piedmont, and Hungary, have fuffered much; but France boafts of more martyrs to the truth than any other kingdom in Europe. We think, and we think juftly, that the late maffacres in that distracted nation are very dreadful: but what are they, when compared with what the Proteftants underwent upon feveral occafions? At one time, by order of the king, bishops, and priests, thirty thousand (fome fay fixty thousand) Proteftants were murdered in the courfe of a few days. This fhocking bufinefs was executed about two hundred years ago. After this a civil war broke out between the Papifts and Proteftants, which continued to rage near fixty years in the very heart of the country, in which Puffendorf affures us, there were destroyed a million of people. One hundred and fifty millions of money were fpent. Nine cities, four hundred villages, twenty thousand churches, two thousand monafteries, and ten thousand houses, were burnt or laid level with the ground.'-This is but a little more than one hundred and fifty years ago.

Mr. Simplon's book was printed in 1795.

Introduction to the Hiftory of Europe, c. v. p. 201.

66

And then again in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, about an hundred years fince, that haughty monarch began another persecution against the Protestants, during the course of which an innumerable multitude of people were haraffed and put to death in the most cruel and ignominious manner men or devils could invent and eight hundred thousand perfons (Voltaire fays five hundred thousand) left the kingdom, and fled into other countries, whitherfoever they could efcape the safest and moft expeditiously.

All these things were tranfacted in France. The Pope of Rome, as head of the church, was at the bottom of the whole. The archbishops, bishops, and clergy, very generally, concurred; and many of them even marched at the head of the king's troops with fmall crucifixes in their bands, exhorting the people to turn and embrace their fuperftitious and idolatrous nonsense, or commanding the foldiers to execute the law upon them. The king, the parliament, the princes, the nobles, the gentry, and the people of the country, all concurred in the diabolical measures. And when the thirty, or fixty thousand Proteftants before mentioned, were massacred, we are particularly informed, that the Pope, as Soon as he received the news, appointed public

7

thanks